Assigned to JUD                                                                                                          AS PASSED BY THE SENATE

ARIZONA STATE SENATE

Forty-eighth Legislature, First Regular Session

AMENDED

FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1623

elections; manual audit revisions

Purpose

            Changes election law with regard to ballot counting procedures, automatic restoration of voting rights and penalties for unlawful release of election information and interference with election results.

Background

Voting Rights

            In Arizona, statute provides that a felony conviction suspends civil rights including the right to serve as a juror, the right to possess a gun or firearm and the right to vote (A.R.S. § 13-904).  A person may have civil rights restored by a judge upon  proper application following discharge from probation (A.R.S. § 13-905), prison (A.R.S. § 13-906), federal probation (A.R.S. § 13-909) or federal prison (A.R.S. § 13-910).  The right to vote of any person convicted of a felony is automatically restored upon completion of probation or discharge from imprisonment and payment of any fine or restitution (A.R.S. § 13-912).

Early Ballots

            According to the Arizona Secretary of State Election Procedures Manual (Procedures Manual), for an early ballot to be counted as valid, the voter must complete and sign the affidavit, place the voted ballot in the envelope provided, securely seal the envelope, and deliver or mail the envelope to the appropriate county recorder or election officer or deposit it at any polling place within the county of residence no later than 7:00 p.m. on election day.

            Statute provides that the county recorder or other election officer hold the early ballot envelopes and affidavits until delivery to the early election boards for processing as provided by the rules of the Secretary of State (A.R.S. §§ 16-550, 16-551).  Once ballots are processed by the early ballot boards, they may be delivered periodically to the central counting place to be counted.  The Procedures Manual specifies that no tallies may be released until all precincts have reported or one hour after the close of polls, whichever occurs first. 

Tallying of Votes

            The Procedure Manual specifies that all voting equipment must pass the logic and accuracy test prior to counting early ballots.  The election official receives the ballots and enters specified information into the voting ballot report log.  Ballots are transported in a sealed

container by two election officials to a receiving site or a central counting place that is inside a secured building.  After ballots have been tabulated, write-in ballots are transferred and processed in a secure manner.  The central counting board secures all processed ballots, count records and precinct reports and seal the ballots.

            As soon as the polls are closed and the last ballot has been deposited in the ballot box, the election board or the tally board must immediately count the votes cast (A.R.S. § 16-601).  All proceedings at the counting center are under the direction of the board of supervisors or other officer in charge of elections and may be observed by representatives of each political party and the public.  If for any reason it becomes impracticable to count all or a part of the ballots with tabulating equipment, the officer in charge of elections may direct that they be counted manually,

following as far as practicable the provisions governing the counting of paper ballots (A.R.S. § 16-621).

            A recount of the vote is required when the canvass of returns in a primary or general election shows that the margin between the votes cast is less than a specific percentage or number of votes, depending on the office or measure in the election (A.R.S. § 16-661).  If the ballots are originally tabulated on an electronic machine, the ballots must be recounted on an electronic machine (A.R.S. § 16-664).

Hand Counts

            Statute provides that a hand count be conducted at the central counting center from at least two percent of the county precincts or two precincts whichever is greater.  Only ballots cast at the polling places and ballots from direct recording electronic machines are counted.  Provisional ballots, conditional provisional ballots and write-in votes are not included in the hand count.  One or more batches of early ballots are selected by the election officer for a post-election manual audit, randomly selecting a number equal to one percent of the total number of early ballots.  The county chairman of a represented political party designates and provides the election board members to perform the hand count under the supervision of the county officer in charge of elections (A.R.S. § 16-602).

            The fiscal impact associated with this legislation is undetermined.  However, increased penalties for unlawful release of vote tallies and counterfeiting may increase incarceration.

Provisions

Restoration of the Right to Vote

1. Restores, automatically following completion of probation or discharge from imprisonment, the right to vote to any person who has been convicted of one or more felonies and whose right to vote was lost or suspended by the conviction.

2. Requires a person to register to vote to be eligible to vote in any election.

3. Prohibits the automatic restoration of the right to vote to a person who knowingly substitutes, forges, counterfeits, changes or manipulates ballot tabulations or totals or election results, including through electronic means.

Early Ballots

4. Prohibits the tally of early ballots earlier than seven days before election day.

5. Creates a class 6 felony for any person who unlawfully releases information regarding early ballot vote tallies or any person who possesses an early ballot tally sheet or summary without authorization from the election officer.

Hand Count Procedure

6. Requires, for the purposes of conducting a hand count for each countywide primary, general and presidential preference election, the precincts to be selected randomly from a pool consisting of every precinct in that county.

7. Requires the randomly selected precincts for each primary and general election to include up to five contested races.

8. Directs the county recorder or other election officer to separate, by political party, the primary ballots to be hand counted.

9. Requires, without computer use, the selection by lot of the races to be hand counted from the following ballots:

a) one statewide ballot measure for a general election unless there are no measures on the ballot.

b) one contested statewide office race, or if there is no statewide office race, the state contested race of the House of Representatives or the Senate.

c) one contested federal office race, either US Senator of US House of Representatives; the candidates names may vary among the sampled precinct for a US House of Representatives race.

d) one contested state House of Representatives race of state Senate race; the candidates names may vary among the sampled precincts.

e) additional contested races, until four races have been selected or until no additional contested federal, statewide or legislative races or ballot measures are available for selection if there are fewer than four contested races resulting from the statewide ballot measure, statewide office, federal office and statewide legislative office selections.

10. Specifies that no hand count be conducted for an election that has no contested races.

11. Specifies, for the presidential preference election, a hand count of two percent of the designated polling places be selected by lot.

12. Decreases, from at least three to at least two, the number of board workers the county chairman designates for each precinct to be audited.

13. Specifies the designated board workers are to assist with the audit.

14. Specifies that any qualified elector from this state may be a board worker without regard to party designation.

15. Removes the cancellation of a hand count and acceptance of the electronic tabulation as the official count if the board workers fail to appear and perform the hand count.

16. Allows the recorder or election officer to substitute additional individual electors from any political party from anywhere in the state if there are less than two persons available for each audited precinct from each recognized political party.

17. Requires political parties to provide the recorder the written names of those persons intending to participate in the hand count at the audited precincts by 5:00 P.M. on the Thursday preceding the election.

18. Specifies that the hand count will not proceed if the total number of board workers, provided by all parties is less than four times the number of precincts to be audited.

19. Changes from county officer in charge of elections to chairmen or the chairmen’s designees as the person to randomly select one or more batches of early ballots that have been tabulated and sequestered early ballots.

20. Requires all persons who are processing and counting ballots to be qualified electors.

Live Video Recording

21. Requires, for any statewide, county or legislative election , the election officer to provide a live video recording of the custody of all ballots at the counting center from the receipt of ballots to the complete tabulation of ballots.

22. Requires the live video recording to link to the Secretary of State’s website.

23. Requires the Secretary of State to post the video coverage for viewing by the public.

24. Requires the election officer to record the video coverage of the ballots at the counting center and retain the recordings as public record.

Counterfeiting Election Returns

25. Increases, from a class 4 felony, to a class 3 felony a person who knowingly forges or counterfeits returns of an election.

26. Creates a class 3 felony if a person knowingly substitutes, forges, counterfeits, changes or manipulates ballot tabulations or totals or election results by electronic or computer means.

Miscellaneous

27. Makes technical and conforming changes.

28. Becomes effective on the general effective date.

Amendments Adopted by Committee

1. Specifies the types of contested races to be randomly selected for a hand count.

2. Restores requirements regarding designating board workers to conduct the hand count.

3. Removes the requirement of the county election officer to perform the hand count.

Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole

1. Requires, for any person convicted of one or more felonies, the automatic restoration of the right to vote upon completion of probation or discharge from imprisonment.

2. Specifies that a person must register to vote to be eligible to vote in any election.

3. Increases the number of contested races to be hand counted.

4. Specifies, for the hand count, the county recorder or election officer to separate the primary ballots by political party.

5. Specifies, without computer use, the selection by lot of ballot measures and contested races to be hand counted.

6. Specifies the ballot selection procedure for the Presidential preference election.

7. Decreases the minimum number of board workers designated to assist with the audit.

8. Specifies that any qualified elector from theist ate may be a board worker without regard to party designation.

9. Specifies the procedures to designate additional electors to perform the hand count.

10. Specifies that the hand count will not proceed if the total number of board workers provided by all parties is less than four times the number of precincts to be audited.

11. Requires procedures for the live video recording of all state, county and legislative ballots.

12. Prohibits the automatic restoration of voting rights to a person who interferes with election results.

Senate Action

JUD                 2/12/07     DPA    5-0-2-0

3^rd Read           3/8/07                   16-12-2-0

Prepared by Senate Research

March 12, 2007

CEW/ac